The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-09-29
CAPITAL N LABOR.
4 Paper Read by Prof j. d. Hodges, Be-
fore the Farmers Institute at Con-
cord, August IL, 1887.

cora, august IL, 1901
The selection of this subject "a not
altogether of my choosing. The man
agement desired-and very properly
so, [ think-that variety, rather than
monotony, should characterize the
exercises of this Institute, even if
some of the topics presented should
not be entirely correlative or strictly
germane.
In pursuance of this idea they
kindly honored me with an invitation
to offer a paper on the topic announced.
And since | am to endeavor to treat
SO important a question, | trust l may
do so fairly, with no unnecessary
harshness towards capital, and with
the utmost goodwill and sympathy
towards labor. Doubtless the utter
ance of many truths, as 1 apprehend
them, may, by turns, eem disagree
able to both parties, yet it will be al
lowed that such u~tterances should be
as decisively expressed as they are
honestly conceived.
The laborer has real grievances he
encounters serious and peculiar diff
%culties, and his wrongs ought to be
fully conceded and the obstacles to
his progress amply appreciated, if he
is to be advised proftably. So long
as he conceiyes that his cause is I'M
fairly presented, and that his hard
ships are not understood or appre-
ciated, much of the best meant counsel
will be lost upon him.
The amicable distribution of the
joint product of capital and labor is
one Of the greatest questions of our
time. A solution that shall be fair
and just to the employer and the en-
ployed, is the crying need of the age,
and will be the burden of the philan-
thropist and Of the statesman for the
coming century. Like a great noun
tain, the nearer VIZ approach it, the
more ~stupendous it becomes. In the
conventional half hour allowed for the
discussion of this topic, [ should be
wholly unable to compass even it's
faintest outlines, and must content
myself to move over a small segment of
the surface: rather than attempt an
elaborate o + logical presentation.
Capital is labor, or the product of
labor, materialized, retained and made
effective in producing or commanding
yet other labor. Labor is capital in a
plastic, formative, intangible state.
It is an active, moving agency whose
effected result, when husbanded and
held, becomes capital, which in turn
may be, and often is, harnessed and
made perform intricate and efficient
labor. Thus labor is transformed into
capital, and capital into a laborer.
The capital invested in machinery
that produces a thousand yards of
cloth per day is as truly a laborer, in
effect, as the human hand that weaves
ten yards a day. And the inventive
genius who constructs the machinery,
or the frugal laborer, who has saved
Of his hard earnings capital enough to
purchase the machinery, is as much
entitled to the product thereof as if
such product had been wrought out
by tired fingers. The blacksmith who
has accumulated in his right arm the
skill and the power to produce one
hundred horse shoes in a given time,
is as much a capitalist as the owner of
a machine producing a hundred horse
shoes in the same time.
Both are manufacturers, the n by
means of a machine invented by him
self or purchased with the earnings of
many a tired day the other too in
dolent to exercise his inventive powers
and too self-indulgent to a v of his
earnings enough to buy a machine,
works out his hundred shoes by means
Of muscular power. Both, l repeat,
are manufacturers, and are alike en-
titled to the good will of society and
to the protection of law. The prin-
ciple admitted, it makes no difference
whether the capacity of the machine
be n hundred shoes, or n hun
dred million. The principle admit
ted, it makes no difference whether
the earnings with which the machine
is purchased be that of the manufac-
turer himself or that of his father, or
that of his grandfather to the fortieth
generation. And yet the one is de-
nominated a bloated capitalist and the
other a poor laborer!
Two brothers, the one the eldest,
the other the youngest, of a family of
thirteen, born of humble p~arentage,
adopted the spinner's trade. The
elder was a strong man physically and
mapta11v tho uo,,noor VOC u1ondor o,l